Developing a Big Data Strategy

Is Big Data mostly an undiscovered country? Over at Forbes, Natasha Baker reports that a 2012 IDC study indicates that there will be 40 zettabytes of data on the planet by 2020. Meanwhile, the same IDC study says that only one half of one percent of 2012’s data was analyzed.

Gartner predicts that through 2015, eighty percent of the Fortune 500 will fail to exploit big data opportunities for competitive advantage. According to a new survey from Lyris and The Economist Intelligence Unit, only 27 percent of companies integrate data from different data sources, and this prevents them from capturing a unified view of customer data.

So, where should a company begin?

According to Brennan Carlson, SVP of product and strategy at Lyris, most big data projects are still heavily dependent on customized solutions that rely on people-powered analytics. Until the technology matures, people are key. First off, build a data science team even if it’s one person. Carlson recommends that people focus on simple problems that directly relate to the success of the business, and that they should start now, as data growth is going to be exponential.